Yesterday was an amazing day. When you sit back and watch scenes where people do yoga on tv or in movies, it looks pretty effortless. I figured I couldn't do yoga because of my size, trying to get into the positions. I was wrong, that is not the hard part. I viewed yoga as a relaxing, meditative thing, which it is... but... or should I say BUT when you are as out of shape as I am (maybe even if you are in shape, I don't know, haven't been in shape in a long long time), holding those poses really takes work. And muscle. And I have to say I am feeling many more of those newly awakened muscles today. Surprisingly, not the ones I thought I would feel.
I have a 40 minute drive home after yoga, during which time my newly awakened muscles like to stiffen up on me. So last night as I did the Tim Conway Old Man Shuffle (exaggerated for effect, of course) through my family room, I asserted to my friend Cheryl that yoga is good for me. We laughed about it. No pain, no gain. And once again, I guess I can't really call it pain. Discomfort maybe. The muscles in my back are what have tightened up today and on a scale of 1 to 10 are probably only really about a 3, so not much pain. Not as much as I am used to feeling. And I have to remember this is first thing in the morning, my back is usually at least this tight when I first get up. I sleep oddly sometimes and my back likes to be very vocal about letting me know that. I can't work on my core in yoga and not feel those muscles in my back.
What surprises me is that the muscles that were yelling at me, unhappy about being wakened during the class were my shoulders. My arms are heavy. Between the pounds of excess fat and the retained water, they are pretty heavy limbs. So my shoulder muscles were working hard to keep my arms in the warrior poses. I thought for sure those ones would be the ones hurting this morning, but nope. The muscles doing the complaining are in my mid and lower back. Good. Get that core woken up! This body has slept for far too long! It's time to wake up, get moving, and make something of itself!!
Another plus from yesterday is that I met my walking goal. I always feel good when I do that. I wasn't meeting it very often over the last 7 weeks while I have been sick with the crud that's going around and around and around. I just simply ran out of breath too quickly. I think I am finally shaking the crud. (knock wood). So now I am not running out of breath so quickly and I can get back to my walking goal too.I love meeting goals!!
Today, not sure how much walking I will get in... I get to sit in meetings all day. But it will be fun. This group of people usually are. And I am going to try really hard to get a good yoga practice in at home. I say that every day and so far the most I have fit in has been some yogic breathing or maybe a few stretches. But after sitting in meetings all day I think I will be doing myself a huge favour by trying to do a whole little session at home, doing the things I remember.
I am on the lookout for a yoga ball. I am not sure the exercise ball I have had since they first came out is going to hold my weight now. Oh, static weight, sure, but not dynamic weight. And much as it is an anti-burst ball, I still don't want to land flat on my assets while I am in the middle of the sitting something or other pose. I know that there are balls out there that will hold my dynamic weight. I am thinking that will solve the problem of getting my hips in the right position for the sit down portion of the yoga class until I can get up and down off the floor. In the meantime, my son can continue to go ahead and sit on this other ball I have, even though he is getting to be too tall for it.
Well, time to do the old man shuffle back to the kitchen to get myself some breakfast. I am awake now. It's probably more the middle aged out-of-shape woman shuffle now. I am looking forward to being able to do the guess-my-age skip through life. It's coming. I can feel it. :)
Namaste
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